The General Chat Thread

Whispered wrote: »

I mentioned ages ago that we needed a new oven. Husband went and got a second hand one and wouldn't you know it, a year on and this one needs to be replaced too.

So definitely going brand new this time. Just not sure where to start, what to look out for, brands to avoid etc. Budget of €500max.

Does anywhere do a decent length of warranty? I don't seem to have much luck!

Any features you love about your oven, or thought you would use but don't really?

Are any easier to clean and maintain?

BaZmO* wrote: »

He made a very pointed effort to make sure the guest chef washed his hands after he had just handled raw meat that he had put on a grill pan.

Food safety practices in European TV cooking shows

Although cooking programmes and food demonstrations are perceived as entertainment sources, they are partly educational, so they are excellent vehicles for delivering food safety information to young people (Diehl et al., 2010) and other groups. Indeed, television was cited as one of three main sources of food safety information by Irish teenagers (Tobin et al., 2005).

Warburton (2001) noted that, while cookery programmes were becoming increasingly popular in the UK, it was perceived that they devoted little or no attention to health and safety aspects of food preparation and storage. Subsequently, research carried out at the University of Guelph, Canada (Mathiasen et al., 2004), revealed that chefs on popular television cooking programmes make food safety errors 13 times as often as they handle food correctly. The study showed that an average of seven food-handling mistakes was made during a typical 30-minute show. About 30 per cent of the shows analysed were produced in Canada, while the remainder were from the USA and the UK. The most frequent error was poor hand washing, which occurred in 75 per cent of the segments from 2002 and 96 per cent of those from 2003. Another prevalent mistake was not separating raw from cooked foods, which was noticed in 72 per cent of the shows in 2002 and 86 per cent of those in 2003.

4.3 Cross-contamination
Cross-contamination occurrences are difficult to determine, however many experts agree that cross-contamination plays an important role and is responsible for the sporadic outbreaks associated with home cooking (Humphrey, 2001; Clayton and Griffith, 2003). If only this argument is to be considered, it would be highly advisable for all TV cooking shows to display correct food handling practices that will induce the viewer to use correct cooking practices. Practices associated with the risk of cross-contamination from raw products to ready-to-eat products were observed in several shows. Important vehicles for transfer of pathogens are hands and equipment with direct food contact with such as knives, spoons and chopping boards. The practice of washing hands after handling raw meat or fish was infrequently observed (16 per cent of the evaluated TV shows) and on occasion the host chef had to prompt the guest chef to carry this out. In other shows (e.g. Top Chef Romania, Hellstroms Masterchef, Saturday Kitchen Live) chefs seemed to prefer to wipe their hands on a dry cloth, such as a tea towel or an apron (sometimes blood-stained), between any operation, and this was inevitably the same cloth used throughout the cooking operation, with obvious cross-contamination risks. It is not appropriate to use the same cloth to clean hands and to clean cutting boards and plates, even if it is wet, especially after handling raw meat.

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Now it's getting chillier in the evenings, turn it into mulled wine by adding spices and honey to sweeten. Invite some friends over.